Slow Evening Speeds?

Slow Evening Speeds?

This seems to be a common topic amongst many people, but I'm not sure the obvious is being seen: Streaming in general puts an extrememly heavy and continuous demand for bandwidth on any internet backbone, let alone a limited bandwidth satellite system... in space.

Considering the relatively high latency that comes with the science of doing satellite communications, users need to think about the impact of so many people trying to stream at will at the same time, and how that's affecting the performance they see - not to mention the performance others on the same beam/outroute see.

I don't stream on satellite, so don't @ me. Just my 2p, er ¢.

* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.

Re: Slow Evening Speeds?

What's intuitive to me, is that given the sheer amount of data it uses to begin with, there are far better ways to spend one's data budget than for streaming. But again, that's just me. Everyone has their own way of doing things.

* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.

Re: Slow Evening Speeds?

I'm the same way. I may stream something or watch some Youtube videos at the end of my month if I have a good chunk of data left, and may even do so if I'm up during the Bonus period, but, for the most part, I'm pretty miserly when it comes to my data. I have DirecTV for my TV, and I don't mind waiting for a new movie to be shown on a movie channel, nor do I mind all that much that I may be missing out on some decent TV shows on Netflix or another service.

With that said, though, I certainly do understand that a lot of people don't really know what "data" means, nor how much is used for a given thing, like streaming, and may very well end up learning a hard lesson. And this is especially true for those who have never had a need to understand what data is, nor what it means to have a certain amount available to use.

I had to use the analogy of money to try to explain to my folks what data meant, explaining to them that each and every thing they do on the net, whether it's reading email, going to a website, or even streaming, "costs" them a certain amount of data, and why some things "cost" more than others. They still don't really understand what data is, but they at least now get how it's used.

Re: Slow Evening Speeds?

Good points, but there were specific issues with a beam or three that went beyond lots of people streaming at the same time. I've had crappy speeds at all times of the day and night -- it may be a different issue (or a mix of issues including bunches of people streaming).

I stream some (Netflix and Amazon), and with the new data saver thingy, it's possible to do, but one must always keep an eye on the meter. I budget the data so it lasts the whole month.

Re: Slow Evening Speeds?

I do stream very occasionally, but only if Arsenal aren't on TV and my only resource is Arsenal Player or the TalkSport app. Even then it's usually at a time that it's not really going to hurt anyone at prime time.

68 is a special case, though. And it's about to get an update pushed to it. My comment is generally across the board, and mostly meant for beams that may not have the kind of population that 68 is potentially running against, yet are having those kinds of problems because of the strain streaming presents.

* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.

Re: Slow Evening Speeds?

That's an understatement, Gabe. LOL. You may well be the world champion of data conservation.

Not so much anymore. Last month I used 15GB of my 20GB of plan data and 12GB of Bonus data, which is the most I've ever used of either data pool. The month before was less, but not by much, and still a lot more than I used to use. I used to, on average, use about 5GB of plan data and even less Bonus data.

Granted, last month I downloaded some large files and such that I don't normally do, and was also helping someone test their server. I also did a lot more speed testing than normal. Those 25MB download tests add up quickly!

My stepfather is actually the world champion of data misers, though not intentionally. Last month he used around 800MB of plan data and 100MB of Bonus data. Now THAT's low.

Re: Slow Evening Speeds?

@MarkJFine, I'm looking forward to see what the update to Beam 68 (go 68ers!) does. The speed is really crazy, with "gusts" of 83Mbps and then lows of 4Mbps. My average is not bad if I take measurements at different parts of the day (it's about 15 to 19 Mbps), but there are times the speed is really crappy....

Re: Slow Evening Speeds?

Just so you know, I was sold a fully-loaded Escape by a lovely saleswoman from the Midlands yesterday (Birmingham). To say her accent didn't massively help the decision to buy would be a tremendous lie.

* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.